Hidden Truths
by WyldCard4
Summary: Harper confronts Max after the events of "Max's Secret Girlfriend." Sequel to Blatant Lies.


**Author's Note:** This fic owes credit to Princess Russo for serving as my beta reader this time around. Thank you very much ma'am. I hope you liked it.

I sat in Max's room, hiding in his closet. His closet was the only Russo closet I hadn't hidden in already. I had hidden in Justin's closet when I was seven. Alex had hidden me in her closet when I was five, and I'd hidden in Jerry and Teresa's closet when I was fourteen. But Max's was an enigma.

**We can't let that happen to you again." Alex smiled as handed me the anklet. "You're never going to trust yourself if I people keep messing with your head. So here's a personal spell lock. It will keep anyone else from breaking your head open and playing with it." Alex's smile was wide, and very pleased with herself.**

"**Alex, that's so thoughtful of you." I looked at the charmed device. "I was really getting annoyed with all the mind control after the whole Stevie thing." I looked up from the anklet, and my mind darkened with suspicion. "What's wrong with it?"**

**Alex's face crumpled. "Nothing's wrong with it, Harper! Don't you trust me?" She gave me her devilish smile. I stared back at her with my full intensity, and Alex caved under the pressure. "Okay, it is made from my magic, so technically I'll still be able to charm you, but nobody else will be able to do it." Alex dismissed it with a wave of her hand.**

**I looked at her, but I didn't push it. I knew that Alex would charm me again, but it was Alex. I could deal with it.**

Max entered the room. There was a swing in his step, a way he punched the air with his fist, it was in his eyes, he'd done a scheme. Maybe his first and it had turned out alright. Max was growing up.

"**It's called a teleport bracelet. Just press it and you'll be back in our Wizard Lair. Only use it in emergencies." Justin told me, his hand moving in a flourish before he put the bracelet in mine. We sat in the Lair, a set of strange looking devices in front of me.**

"**But what if the problem is a monster breaking into the Wizard Lair?" I asked Justin, trying not to get lost in those eyes.**

"**Very good question." Justin placed another bracelet in front of me. "This is for your other hand, it teleports you directly to Kelbo's house in the Wizard World. Use only if the Lair has been compromised."**

**I examined the two thin bands of metal. I hated them already. They lacked real decoration or variety, they just **_**were**_**. They weren't art. I could have made a million better bracelets. But they were Justin's bracelets, Russo bracelets. I would wear them for the rest of my life.**

"**Remember. Use them only in real emergencies. Your life has to be in danger. This is not Alex stranding you on top of a roller coaster emergency, these bracelets are serious." Justin had a knowing tone, wonderfully judgmental and superior. I lapped up every word.**

"**But Alex uses magic to go home all the time. Why can't I use a bit of magic?" I asked Justin as I put the bracelets on.**

"**Because Alex is a wizard, and you're our vassal." Justin told me. He looked down at the table and sorted through more of the Infernal Devices.**

"**Vassal?" I raised my nose at the term.**

"**You're a mortal under our protection. Either you're allowed to use bits of our magic artifacts, and a threat, or you aren't, and you're an innocent. We want you protected Harper. If you can use powers beyond mortal ken, you can be destroyed by other wizards. If you don't, you're protected." I could not help having a huge grin spread across my face. Justin wanted to protect me.**

Max looked around his room before he started to recite a spell. I didn't know the words, but I knew they sounded foul. Now the room was in complete silence. Nothing came from out in the hall. All I could hear was my own breathing. Then Max went up to a mirror on the wall. I'd noticed it when I came in, it was new. Maybe he put it in after he got his girlfriend?

Max began to talk to himself. "Mine's broken. I think mine's broken. I think _mine's_ broken. I think mine's _broken._" I watched Max practice the lines, feeling slightly sick. He did this for five whole minutes. He moved on quickly, and I recognized far too many of the lines. Was he, was he really…

Max Russo, an actor? He'd gone a long way from the annoying impressions he'd been doing late last year.

I felt the anklet on my ankle. I could fake it if he wiped my memory.

Max screamed suddenly at the wall, and he punched it. He was shaking all over. For a moment I wondered if mind control was the only way he'd consider lashing out at me, once I was discovered. I hadn't thought of that at all.

"**Of course you can stay the night." Mrs. Russo told me tenderly as I sat there crying furiously. "You can spend the night in Alex's room."**

"**What?" Alex alerted at that.**

"**Thank you!" I hugged Mrs. Russo tightly. "Thank you so much." My little body shook with relief. I could stay here for the night.**

**When I got up the next morning, my parents were back together. I could go back home. I didn't get it until years later, what Alex had done. But that was when I first realized something was weird in the Russo household, something wonderful. It took me a long time to know just **_**how**_** wonderful.**

Max collapsed onto his bed and flipped through a magazine. I shook my head and gathered up my courage. And I knocked on the closet door from the inside.

Max had a confused expression on his face. "My Gosh, my closet has come to life!" He looked frightened, and pulled out his wand. An instant later he recited a spell, and the door blew open. "Harper?" He shook his head. "When did my closet decide to look like Harper?"

"I _am_ Harper, Max." I said, giving him my best glare. "And cut the crap. I know something's up. Why were you practicing your one liners?" My glare was on full intensity.

"Oh, I wasn't practicing my one liners. That was my impression of Max Russo. I decided that I needed to make sure I could get myself right before I worked on other people." Max explained. I wondered briefly if he was being weird or if there was some kind of strange hidden truth behind his words.

"Max, I know you pulled off some kind of scheme. You have a successful scheme look all over you." I tried a different tactic. And Max seemed to be caught slightly off guard.

"Yeah, we just pulled off a scheme. We're the Russo's. We just convinced my girlfriend we aren't wizards."

"And you came in acting like you just won the lottery when you lost your first girlfriend." And with that he folded.

"Alright, I schemed my family so I didn't lose Nancy! What's the big deal? They scheme me all the time!" Max raised his arms over his face, taking the defensive.

He hadn't attacked me. I wondered why I even thought of that as a possibility.

**I heard crying from Max's room. I'd heard crying from Justin and Alex's rooms before, but never Max's. I wondered briefly if I should interfere. The answer was yes; I needed to make sure Max was alright.**

**I knocked on the door carefully, and there was no answer. So I opened the door. Max sat on his bed, thankfully fully clothed. He was fighting back tears. He looked just as angry as he looked sad.**

"**Go away." He looked up, glaring at me with that anger. I hadn't seen him like that before. Every other Russo, but not Max. As I walked away I wondered why he was crying. Was it Stevie, not being King of the Wizard World, or something I didn't even know about?**

I was silent for a minute. I stood there, waiting for him to say something else. Max sat on his bed, waiting for me to make my move. The silence gnawed at me, and I broke first.

"They were just trying to do the right thing." I said quietly.

"NO THEY WEREN'T!" Max exploded. "They lied, and they did their Gosh Damned best to take the one thing from my life that is _mine_!" Max shook. I saw Alex and Justin in his face.

"Max, you hide yourselves for a reason. I've known your family since I was five. How long have you known this girl? Are you absolutely sure they weren't right?" I asked him slowly. I was worried he might explode again.

"I've dated her since we got back from that cruise on the S.S. Tipton." Max admitted to me. "Quite a while."

I sat there, thinking. "Why didn't you object? Try to defender her or something?" That was what bugged me.

"They wouldn't listen to me. They never listen! And I couldn't have stood against Alex. Either I didn't fight her, or I was going to lose." Max's voice was growing increasingly bitter as our conversation went on.

"What did happen to Alex, anyway?" I asked him. "She hasn't been right all night."

"I jinxed her," Max admitted. "Just a little one to stop her from seeing through me."

I sat over Justin, listening to his breathing. I wanted to hear his heart beat, but getting that close might have woken him up. Alex sat nearby, reading a magazine.

"**Are you going to quit that?" She asked me. "It's been twenty minutes."**

"**But he's so peaceful like this, and he always gets up and moves when I do this when he's awake." I said, my eyes never leaving Justin's face.**

"**I just don't get it. What do you see in the dork?" I missed the warning tone of voice.**

"**Well, the way he treats you, I guess I think he'd make a great boyfriend after seeing how he treats his little sister." I answered Alex. I felt a glare in the back of my head. I knew I had crossed some kind of line, but I didn't know what.**

"**Justin, Harper's right over you!" Alex shouted as she stormed out. Justin woke up with a start, and a flailing arm got me in the ear. **

"I guess…" I trailed off. Alex had done worse to me, and to everyone in this house. I couldn't blame him. It was still wrong though.

"I would have done Justin, but Mom and Dad would have known it was me if they both started acting like that." Max offered me. I sat down on his bed, and thought for a while. The silence was peculiar.

"They aren't that bad, Max. I know a real bad family, and yours isn't one."

"You don't know _anything_ about this house, Harper." Max shot at me, looking even more agitated than before.

"I knew you were hiding something for a long time. I guessed you had a girlfriend. And I get it, that's why I didn't say anything. I know more than you think." I defended myself carefully.

"You don't know _anything_ Harper!" Max's latest explosion.

"What don't I know?" I kept my voice calm and inquisitive.

"Oh, you don't want to know. You don't want to know at all." Max got up and started pacing.

"It's Alex, and Justin." I said quietly. "They aren't _normal_, are they?"

Max was caught off guard, and I saw the boy again in his face when his jaw dropped and he just stared at me. "You _know_?" He whispered.

"**No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No."**

**I sat in my room repeating it.**

"**Shut up! We're trying to work down here!" I heard my Dad scream, and I was quiet. It couldn't be true, it just couldn't be. But, well, it all fit together. They were…**

"Justin and Alex are in love." I locked eyes with Max. "And you hate it."

"It makes me sick. It makes me want to throw up in the toilet. It makes me want to scream and cry and punch the wall." Max sat down on the bed next to me. He looked defeated. "And I have no idea what to do! They deserve to be happy."

"So do you. You can't help the way you feel about it. If you want to say something you should say it." I told Max.

"How do you feel about it?" Max asked me. I gave out my "awkward" laugh. I'd been doing so well…

"Some are evil, some are kind-" Max started. I told the truth quickly.

"Okay, I was weirded out at first, but I kind of find it cute. I mean, they're really cute together, and they're both gorgeous. I guess it's because I don't have a brother, so I can't relate." I said it in a rush.

"Oh." Max stared at the wall. The silence was oppressive as we sat there.

I got up and left quietly. There was nothing else I could do or say. I thought I heard something behind me and turned around, but Max was silent. So I left and went back down to the basement.

I would have said more, but I didn't have a brother.


End file.
